To say that from now on they should rest and relax in the pines’ shade, when he visited someone’s house.
かげにとて立ちかくるれば唐衣ぬれぬ雨ふるまつの声かな
| kage ni tote tachikakurureba karakoromo nurenu ame furu matsu no koe kana | In the shade, I say, To stand and hide myself away, for Upon my Cathay robe Will fall soughing rain— The sound of pines! |
Tsurayuki
Composed on seeing an aged pine on the rocky shore while on the road to a place called Misaki.[i]
いその松いくひささにか成りぬらんいたく木高き風のおとかな
| iso no matsu ikuhisasa ni ka narinuran itaku kodakaki kaze no oto kana | The pine tree on the rocky shore Has for how many eternities Endured? The tree, so very high, as is The sound of the wind! |
695
[i] Misaki 三崎 lies on the Miura Peninsula 三浦半島 on the far eastern side of Sagami Bay. Sanetomo is known to have visited Misaki in the Third Month, Kenryaku 2 [April 1212] and this poem was probably composed then.
There is a river called the Sagami River. I composed this to say I would board a boat and cross it after the moon had risen.[i]
ゆふづくよさすや川せのみなれ棹なれてもうとき浪のおとかな
| yūzukuyo sasu ya kawase no minarezao narete mo utoki nami no oto kana | On a moonlit night, The beams strike the river rapids— The well-worn pole to the water May be accustomed, yet troublesome is The sound of waves![ii] |
591
[i] This river would have been familiar to Sanetomo, as it flows into the sea some twenty kilometres to the west of Kamakura, where the shogunate was headquartered. Based on the poem, the boat would have been a ferry, punted, rather than sailed across it.
[ii] See: Topic unknown. ゆふづく夜さすやをかべの松のはのいつともわかぬこひもするかな yūzukuyo / sasu ya okabe no / matsu no ha no / itsu to mo wakanu / koi mo suru kana ‘On a moonlit night / The beams strike the hillside / Through the pine needles / All year round, / As constant is my longing.’ Anonymous (Kokinshū XI: 490)
Round Sixteen
Left
荻のはは暮行く風に音すなり我がまつ人のかからましかば
| ogi no ha wa kureyuku kaze ni otosu nari wa ga matsu hito no kakaramashikaba | The cogon grass fronds With the falling twilight breezes Sound out, though Were it the man I’m waiting for It would be better… |
Major Controller of the Left Tametaka
31
Right
逢ふことはかた野にしげる荻の葉の音をばたつな秋ははつとも
| au koto wa katano ni shigeru ogi no ha no oto oba tatsu na aki wa hatsu tomo | Our meeting, so hard: On the hillside thickly growing, O, cogon grass fronds Do not make a sound! For with autumn’s end I have had enough, yet.. |
Horikawa, Court Lady to Her Highness
32
I feel that the emotions encompassed by the sound of the wind in ‘Were it the man I’m waiting for / It would be better’ sounded more striking than ‘On the hillside thickly growing, / O, cogon grass fronds’.
Cogon grass and the Same
Round Fifteen
Left
うき人を驚かすべき方ぞなきうらやましきは荻の上風
| ukibito o odorokasubeki kata zo naki urayamashiki wa ogi no uwakaze | That cruel girl: To make her notice me I have no way at all! How I envy The wind blowing o’er the cogon grass! |
Lecturer Kakuga
29
Right
荻原やよかぜぞつらき音せずはねてこそ人を夢にみましか
| ogiwara ya yokaze zo tsuraki oto sezu wa nete koso hito o yume ni mimashika | O, plain of cogon grass, How unkind is the wind tonight! For without your sound, then Indeed, I would sleep that she I would glimpse within my dreams… |
The Head
30
The conception of love sounds superior at present in envying the ‘wind blowing o’er the cogon grass’ than it does in the ‘unkind is the wind tonight’.
Composed when various people were composing poems on ice at the Victory of Enlightenment Hall.
山がはもこほりにけりないまよりはとどろきおちしおとたゆるまで
| yamagaFa mo koForinikeri na ima yori Fa todoroki otisi oto tayuru made | The mountain stream Has turned to ice, and From now The echoes of its fall Have ceased to make sound henceforth! |
Round Seven
Left (Both Judges – Win)
音にさへ袂をぬらす時雨かな槙の板屋のよはの寝覚に
| oto ni sae tamoto o nurasu shigure kana maki no itaya ni yowa no nezame ni | Even the sound Does soak my sleeves with A shower Striking my roof of cedar boards, Awaking at midnight… |
Lord Sadanobu
13
Right
しぐれとて柞の杜にたちよれば木のはとともに降りかかるかな
| shigure tote hahaso no mori ni tachiyoreba ko no ha to tomo ni furikakaru kana | When with a shower’s fall Within the oak forest I head to stand Together with the leaves, It strikes me as it falls! |
Lord Munekuni
14
Toshiyori states: the first poem’s composition on one’s sleeves getting soaked on hearing a sound is extremely charming. It sounds like that’s really how it is. The latter poem, too, is smooth, and the final line appears to have had some thought put into it, so I dread having to say that the first poem wins.
Mototoshi states: ‘a shower at midnight upon a roof of cedar boards’ is a particularly superlative image, and that this would drench one’s sleeves is also extremely charming. While ‘the oak forest’ does not appear bad, it’s not that remarkable, and ‘waking at midnight’ is something that certainly occurs, I feel.
